Fast food restaurants, coffee shops, convenience stores, and the like, often distribute beverages in disposable drinking cups. These cups are often provided with drink-through lids having reversible openings, which permit the consumption of liquids contained therein, while at the same time preventing unwanted spillage. Drink-through lids with reversible openings are especially desirable when distributing hot beverages, such as coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and the like.
Various drink-through lid designs incorporating reversible openings conventionally comprise a lid having a drinking opening and a hinged closure member integrally formed therewith. According to at least one example, the hinged closure member has a radial dimension greater than that of the drinking opening to permit an outward marginal edge portion of the hinged closure member to be trapped between the rim of the drinking cup and an overlying part of the lid. The hinged closure member further includes a raised tab that is received in a complementary recess formed in the lid, when the hinged closure member is rotated outward one-hundred-eighty degrees (180°) about its integral hinge to expose the drinking opening. However, a user must manually move the hinged closure member each time the user wishes to open or close the opening.
Other cup lid designs incorporate reversible openings providing a downwardly depressible tab portion. According to at least one example of such a lid design, the tab portion includes a hollow lip-engaging corrugated buttress to insulatively engage a user's upper lip pressed thereagainst. The buttress also acts to bias the tab portion back into its normally closed position, within a horizontal plane of the lid, when lip pressure is removed therefrom.